Community High School Update

Connecting4Communities has been very busy on the public education front. We recently formed a large Public Education Task Force consisting of parents, CPS teachers and other public education professionals and community residents with experience in public education. In early January we presented our model for a new District Innovator high school, along with supporting demographics, at a community meeting hosted at University Commons. In addition to University Commons residents, neighbors from the West and South Loop communities as well as Roosevelt Square were in attendance. Shortly thereafter we presented to the Andrew Jackson Language Academy Local School Council. We are scheduling dates and times to present to the other six local elementary schools and have also begun meeting with the Aldermen in whose wards the seven elementary schools are located that our model proposes feed into a District Innovator high school.

Our efforts to increase access to high quality public education have attracted the attention of print and television media. NBC 5 covered C4C Public Education Task Force member Cristen Dokic’s daughter, Ella, a 4th grader at STEM Magnet Academy, when she addressed the Chicago Board of Education at their January meeting to speak about increasing access to neighborhood schools, including a high school. A couple of days later, NBC 5 interviewed Ella and Cristen live on The Talk hosted by Marion Brooks.